What does a toy shop owner buy her own children for Christmas?

Happy New Year! It does seem a little late for these greetings, but given that this is my first blog for the new year I'm going to say it anyway. I am presently enjoying an extended pseudo break from all things Entropy. It's a Clayton's break, the break you have when you are not having a break. It means I'm doing my work from home, in between looking after the boys who are still on school holidays for another week. My fantastic elves are looking after both the retail and eStore and are doing a great job.

I've been asked a few times what does the owner of a magical toy shop get her own children for Christmas, so I shall share this with you. It's always a little tricky as the boys are pretty familiar with what is in the store, and I try and get them something that is just that bit different. The biggest hit this year was the Haba ball track marble run. We've had this in store for a while, but the boys has never seen it assembled so it was still a nice surprise for him. Reilly already had the large set of Haba blocks which are compatible with the marble run. With these two sets combined the construction possibilities are endless and he has truly been creating some masterpieces. The Haba marble system is different to the Quadrilla marble sets which are also popular. With Quadrilla the pieces interlock for more stable and structured systems, whereas the Haba set involves more creativity and free assembly.

Reilly also loves his vehicles, so I did a special order for a most wonderful wooden hand-made crane from Fagus. This huge vehicle has been integrated nicely into the marble system, with the box used to carry the marbles over to the track!

Connor has an ongoing love affair with Papo figurines, s

o the perfect gift for him was a home for them all; the Le Toy Van Lionheart Castle. This is the largest of the Le Toy Van castles currently available and has secret little hiding places and features everywhere. Now the figurines are happily used for hours of pretend play, even if the historical accuracy of the play leaves a little to the imagination, with dinosaurs, dragons, knights and roman soldiers all involved in the same scene!

To finish things off, I also had the wonderful Mervyn

at Dobbin and Drum Toys make the boys one of his handmade teepees, and had it embroidered with

their names. It now plays an integral role as a cubby house for secret men's business!

Out of the mouths of babes....

Oh where to start this week? I have been thinking about this blog for a bit but just have not got round to putting fingers to keyboard (remember when we used to say 'pen to paper'?) Oh but I do digress.... Incidentally, can you remember the first email you ever received, or text message for that matter? Truly one is showing her age. As always there has been lots happening. Heaps of Christmas catalogue stock has arrived, with some great specials from Le Toy Van, Djeco and Voila. The catalogue specials officially start from November 1; however a few are already loaded into our eStore. One of these is a tin fairy tea set for $29.95, which I know is going to be a best seller. With all this stock arriving we have officially outgrown our warehouse (not bad considering we didn't even have a warehouse 18 months ago). So our overflow stock is being held at another storage facility as we gear up for a bumper Christmas.

We are also right in the middle of a website re-design. You can't notice any difference yet, as it is being done on a test server. The re-design is aimed at making your shopping experience easier. The main change is going to be a re-categorisation of items, with new product groupings that should be intuitively easier to use. We are planning on switching over to the new site by the end of October. Fingers crossed it will be a seamless transition! We have more than 200 new items available this month alone, however you won't be seeing them until we switch over to the new site. We promise they are well worth waiting for. To finish with I need to share this gem with you. We were at the servo and Connor (age 7 today) was 'interpreting' the icons with the lines through them telling you what you are not allowed to do. "Mummy, there is No Smoking, No talking on your phone, and No children watering the cars to make them grow". Priceless!!

Vroom vroom - get your motor running

July is absolutely the best time of the year up here in Townsville. Clear, crisp mornings and sunny days in the mid 20s. It's magic. There is heaps on too; lots of tourists about; and the odd whale swimming near the ferry route to Maggie Island. This week things are especially 'buzzy', as the V8s are on this weekend. Now I am the first to admit that I am really not a car enthusiast, but it would be hard not to get excited about 130 000 visitors in a town of 170 000 people. The tent city that most of them are staying in must be pretty impressive. Our retail store is right near the race track; so we have got into the spirit by making our window displays race day ready, with a plethora of vehicles on show. From Automoblox to Wonderworld, and everything in between; Bajo, Brio, Cito; Debresk, Djeco, Fagus, Haba, HaPe, Janod, John Crane, Le Toy Van, Pintoy, Playsam, the Toy Workshop, Vilac and Voila. We have more than 100 wooden cars to choose from, so our visitors can take home a nice souvenir of their time in the capital of North Queensland.